How much will you need to retire?

To begin taking charge of the quality of your future, find out how much income you'll need in retirement to maintain your current standard of living. This worksheet can help you.

If you're like most Americans, you may have to provide almost half of the income you'll need for the more than 20 years you may live in retirement.

Retirement worksheet
John has already completed this calculation. Use his example as a guide in preparing your figure. Four factors from these tables are needed to calculate your retirement income goal.

In this exercise, the numbers ("factors") will be used to project changes in your income savings over time.

Factor table*
Years Factor A Factor B Factor C Factor D
5 1.17 4.31 1.36 5.87
10 1.42 7.25 2.00 14.49
15 1.73 9.24 2.94 27.15
20 2.11 10.60 4.32 45.76
25 2.56 11.53 6.34 73.11
30 3.12 12.16 9.32 113.28
35 3.79 12.59 13.69 172.32
40 4.62 12.88 20.12 259.06

Life Expectancy table
  Retirement Age Life Expectancy Retirement Age Life Expectancy  
  55 29 years 65 20 years  
  56 28 years 66 19 years  
  57 27 years 67 18 years  
  58 26 years 68 18 years  
  59 25 years 69 17 years  
  60 24 years 70 16 years  
  61 23 years 71 15 years  
  62 23 years 72 15 years  
  63 22 years 73 14 years  
  64 21 years 74 13 years  

Please refer to the above factor tables. Your Plan
Enter your retirement age (at least 55 and no more than 74).
Enter your current age.
Enter your current salary.
Enter the total amount you have saved for retirement up to now.
Press this button to calculate the remaining values in the worksheet.
Results  
Years until retirement (your current age subtracted from your retirement age).
Your projected salary when you retire (your current salary multiplied by Factor A. Use the years until retirement to select this factor).
Your retirement income needs, usually around 80% of your final salary. (Multiply your projected salary by 0.80).**
Your retirement income that will be provided by Social Security and other sources such as pension plans. On average, 58% of your final retirement income will be provided by these two sources.* (Multiply your retirement income needs by 0.58).
Additional income needed during retirment (your retirement income provided by Social Security and other sources such as pension plans minus your retirement income needs).
The lump sum you must have when you retire to provide the additional income you determined above. (Multiply the additional income need during retirement by Factor B. To select this factor, start with the life expectancy table. Then, in Factor B, use the closest approximation of this life expectancy to select a factor).
The value of your current savings at retirement. (The lump sum you calculated above multiplied by Factor C. Use the years until retirement to select this factor.)
The additional amount of money you need at retirement to meet your additional income goal. (The value of your current savings at retirement subtracted from the lump sum you must have when you retire).
The amount of money you need to save each year to meet you additional income goal. (Divide the additional amount of money you need at retirement to meet your additional income goal by Factor D. Use the years until retirement to select this factor.)
Press this button to clear the worksheet.